You are browsing the archives of 2006 March.

Yesterday, I described the excitement of landing in Oakland and birding Arrowhead Marsh. By the time I finished there, checked into my hotel, and found my way to the hills above Oakland, the sun was growing low in the sky. The dramatic heights of Oakland Hills and the other elevated areas east of Oakland proper [...]

Rather surprisingly researchers investigating H5N1 have discovered a new bird species: it has never been seen and no-one knows quite where to look for it, but 10,000 Birds has exclusively obtained an email that has some details of the remarkable discovery…
 

“…In Europe too people have discovered the species that Martin [Williams, a researcher based [...]

Anna’s Hummingbird
Business has brought me to California this week and I’ve got to say, flying into Oakland is pretty sweet. Not only is the airport nice and clean, it sits less than a mile from premier birding habitat! Arrowhead Marsh, part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park, is a birding bonanza, a [...]

Silver Gull Larus novaehollandiae
Sydney and Melbourne, Australia
 
The Silver Gull Larus novaehollandiae is Australia’s commonest gull - and the one seen dodging cricket balls during televised Test matches. Once considered conspecific with both South Africa’s Hartlaub’s Gull Larus hartlaubii and New Zealand’s Red-billed Gull Larus scopulinus all three are now considered as separate species.
 

Sydney, April
 

Sydney, [...]

Last December, I joined a large and diverse collection of bloggers in examining how the concept of race impacts certain areas of our lives on Blog Against Racism Day.  I looked at racism in birding, since this is my beat, so to speak. Now I’ve learned that we’ve got a Blog Against Sexism Day. My [...]

Alluring rumors of Pine Siskin enticed me to visit Van Cortlandt Park this weekend, but alas, just like every other time I’ve chased rarities there, I came up empty. New York City’s third largest park simply covers too much acreage, 1146 to be precise, with too few landmarks by which to chart sightings and too [...]

Tamiflu (the trade name for oseltamivir) has been touted as THE answer to fight any pandemic that may arise from a mutation of the H5N1 virus and vast stocks have been bought by western governments. Why has it been so touted and who by? These are relevant questions when you consider the fact that a) [...]

From the highly respected journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/440006a.html):

“With avian flu spreading around the world at a frightening rate, scientists are welcoming an international proposal for state-of-the-art labs to monitor emerging diseases in developing countries. But they add that the bird-flu crisis has exposed glaring deficiencies that demand a radical rethink of the world’s [...]

Is it any co-incidence that as the H5N1 virus spreads west threatening the livelihoods of rich people that matter rather than those of a bunch of poor people in hot countries somewhere a long way from Europe or the US that don’t, at long, long last some proper effort is being made by the western [...]